Seeing Stars and Storming Barns at Mickey's Toon Town Fair

Heading out of Fantasyland, we hook a left past Pooh's Playful Spot and head for Mickey's Toon Town Fair, where Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald, Goofy, and even old Pegleg Pete live.

This land first opened as Mickey's Birthday Land to celebrate Mickey's 60th birthday, then morphed into Mickey's Star Land when they decided to keep the land open permanently. A few years after that, the name changed yet again, becoming Mickey's Toon Town Fair. Mickey's Toon Town Fair is aimed pretty squarely at children, for the most part, so if you've got young ones, you'll likely spend more time here than if you don't.

One of the cool things you can do here is tour through Mickey's and Minnie's houses - built to look just like they do in the cartoons. These houses are very hands-on, so pay special attention to, well, everything you see in them. Look at the titles of the books on the shelves, for example; they're all puns drawn from other book titles. If there's a knob on a radio or an oven, turn it to see what happens. These houses are full of jokes, some of which you have to look for, and while this land is primarily aimed at children, you'll notice that a lot of the jokes to be found in these houses are aimed at grown-ups, so there's something there for everyone.

Donald's boat is a big play area for kids - and there's a lot of water, so expect your kids to get wet on this one. Do bear in mind that, if the humidity is absurdly high - as it sometimes gets in Orlando - the water won't readily evaporate from clothing, so your kids (or you) may be wet and sticky all day.

After passing by Donald's boat, you come to the real focus of this land: character autographs. In the Judge's Tent, you can meet tons of characters, so if character photos and autographs are high priorities for you, this is the place to be! You can meet Princesses, the Fab Five, some villains, and, soon, the Disney Fairies (Tinkerbell and friends), who are poised to take the crown from the princesses when it comes to face time in the parks.

The Walt Disney World Railroad has a stop in Toon Town, so you can hop aboard here or hop off here, if you so choose.

The only other thing to do in Mickey's Toon Town Fair is to help Goofy crop dust his fields on Goofy's Barnstormer. Sounds like work, but it's with Goofy, so it turns out to be a lot of fun. This little roller coaster is short and sweet, but it's themed to the hilt, and it's a lot of fun. The pell-mell flight through the barn (it's called the Barnstormer for a reason!) is a great intro to roller coasters for younger kids (it only lasts a minute and a half, so if it's not working for them, it's over very quickly), but it's also a really enjoyable ride for grown-ups too.

One thing to know - when the Magic Kingdom opens in the morning, everyone knows about the Space Race and the Splash Dash, but there's an extra-special treat awaiting the first person to show up at Goofy's Barnstormer after rope drop. The first rider of the day gets to ride with the man himself! If you've got a young one who loves Goofy, I'd head for the Barnstormer first thing out of the gate one day and see if you can be the first one there. Talk about an experience you're not likely to forget!

Sometimes Goofy isn't the character leading the first flight of the day, so don't make any promises to your kids on that score - I'd recommend just keeping this under your hat and letting them be surprised if it does happen.

If you're coming here to see Minnie Moo - the cow with the naturally occurring "Hidden Mickey" on her side - she is no longer here. She finished her days at Fort Wilderness and died in 2001. I'm sure she had as good a life as any cow ever did or will, but it's a shame she's gone; that Mickey on her side was awesome.

Next time, we'll race forward in time as we make our way to Tomorrow Land. Can't wait to launch into that article...